LAGOS, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA)- Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka has reacted to a video showing some members of Pyrates Confraternity mocking Bola Tinubu, presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
In the video which has gone viral on social media, some members of the group dressed in red and white attire, can be seen yelling out critical remarks.
The group chanted: “Baba wey no well e dey shout emi lo kan (Baba that is sick is saying it’s his turn) and hand dey shake (hand that shakes).”
Emi lo kan is a catchphrase attributed to Tinubu who had said it was his turn to be president.
Reacting to the video in a statement issued on Monday, Soyinka said he was not a part of the performance and he is not in anyway connected to the feelings the remarks were intended to convey.
The Nobel laureate said while members have the freedom to express themselves, it is necessary for him to comment on the video because he is “connected” with the group.
He said, “My attention has been drawn to a video clip making internet rounds, of a dancing and chanting group, in red and white costume, purportedly members of the Pyrates Confraternity.
“The display acidly targets a presidential candidate in the awaited 2023 elections. Since the whole world knows of my connection with that fraternity, it is essential that I state in clear, unambiguous terms, that I am not involved in that public performance, nor in any way associated with the sentiments expressed in the songs.
Like any other civic group, the Pyrates Confraternity is entitled to its freedom of expression, individually or collectively. So also, is Wole Soyinka in his own person. I do not interfere in, nor do I attempt to dictate the partisan political choices of the Confraternity. I remain unaware that the association ever engages in a collective statement of sponsorship or repudiation of any candidate. This is clearly a new and bizarre development, fraught with unpredictable consequences.
In addition, let me make the following cultural affirmation. I have listened to the lyrics of the chant intently and I am frankly appalled. I find it distasteful. I belong to a culture where we do not mock physical afflictions or disabilities. Very much the contrary. The Yoruba religion indeed designate a deity, Obatala, as the divine protector of the afflicted, no matter the nature of such affliction. This sensibility is engrained in us from childhood and remains with us all our lives. It operates on the principle of mortal frailty to which all humanity remains vulnerable.
“One of my favourite authors, about whom, by a coincidence, I had cause to write quite recently, was CLR James, author of The Black Jacobins, Beyond A Boundary etc. etc. I called him my ideological uncle. He suffered from Parkinson’s Disease, but remained alert, lucid and combative for decades after the onset of the disease. We interacted politically at the Tanzanian pan-African Congress, the Dakar Festival of Negro Arts and a number of other cultural and political fora. We met frequently in his lifetime, dined together in restaurants, despite his challenge. It would be unthinkable, and a desecration of his memory to be part of any activity that mocked his affliction.
“A further statement will be issued when I have made further enquiries into this strange, uncharacteristic outing of the association.”